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Voice for Peace Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Dec-21-08 10:22 AM
Original message
Juan Cole on Rick Warren/Melissa Etheridge
http://www.juancole.com/

Sunday, December 21, 2008
Rick Warren: "I love Muslims . . . I happen to love Gays and Straights"

I was in Long Beach,Ca. on Saturday for the annual conference of the Muslim Public Affairs Council, where Pastor Rick Warren and I were both headliners.

Also appearing on the stage Saturday evening were Melissa Etheridge and Salman Ahmad, singing Ring the Bells.

Before I go further, I just want to praise MPAC as the most wonderful people. This is the American Muslim community at its best-- socially and spiritually active, deeply interested in civil rights, and insisting on reclaiming their religion from extremists. Many of them are religious and social liberals who dislike fundamentalism. Anyone looking for a worthy charity to donate to in this season of giving should seriously consider MPAC. It is an American organization and only accepts money from Americans, and Homeland Security presented there, so it has all the bona fides.

Back to the conference. There are two stories here of wider interest. One is Rick Warren addressing a Muslim audience. The other is his being at the same event with Etheridge, who is gay.

Warren will read the invocation at President-Elect Barack Obama's inauguration, a choice that angered the gay community. Warren supported Proposition 8, which banned gay marriage (and forcibly divorced or 'de-married' 18,000 gay couples already married in California). Warren also has compared legalizing gay marriage to legalizing incest, pedophilia and polygamy.

I was told that Warren's friends among the MPAC Muslim community had urged him to call Melissa Etheridge Friday night in the run-up to their being (serially) on the same stage Saturday night, and that he did so and they talked for half an hour. During his address, Warren mentioned also seeing Etheridge backstage on Saturday.

Local television in Los Angeles showed a short clip of Etheridge after the event asking gay leaders to reach out to Warren, just as they wanted him to reach out to them.

This stance was big of her, since she and her partner had planned to marry but were prevented from doing so by the same Proposition 8 that Warren worked for, and she was so upset she suggested she would refuse to pay California taxes since she is obviously not considered a full citizen by her fellow Californians.

more at link: http://www.juancole.com/
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justinaforjustice Donating Member (519 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Dec-21-08 02:26 PM
Response to Original message
1. With All Due Respect, Juan Cole, You've Been Conned.
I have great respect for the thinking and writing of Juan Cole. He is one of the best bloggers on the net. In this case, however, I believe he has allowed the genial personality of Rick Warren to distort his thinking about him.

Rick Warren is leading a large segment of American Christians to attack gays and women's rights. Not only has Warren supported Proposition 8 to deprive gays of their rights to equal protection under American laws, but he has personally attacked gays as being equivalent to pedophiles and those who commit incest. His church officially refuses admission to homosexuals.

Not only does Warren fail to follow the basic Christian precept of love thy neighbor, he is leading the effort to unconstitutionally deprive his neighbor of basic rights.

Rick Warren may personally be a nice man or he may simply be an extraordinarily effective manipulator of those he meets, but his actions against his fellow human beings are horrific. This man should not be allowed an honored place at the Obama inauguration. To do so is to condone his bigotry and make it nationally acceptable. It is not.
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Bluenorthwest Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Dec-21-08 02:43 PM
Response to Original message
2. Melissa's just looking for a way out of her pledge
to not pay California Income tax. I also note cole has no quote from Melissa. Why is that?
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bluedawg12 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Dec-21-08 04:29 PM
Response to Original message
3. So what? She talked to a bigot? So what?
I agree, where are Ms. Etheridge's comments about what this meant to her?
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donheld Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Dec-21-08 05:05 PM
Response to Reply #3
4. Indeed, so what
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bluedawg12 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Dec-21-08 05:35 PM
Response to Reply #4
5. Talking to him doesn't place him in a position of national honor.
Unlike an invitation to the podium.
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donheld Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Dec-22-08 02:15 AM
Response to Reply #5
6. enough already with the drama
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